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NEW ORLEANS — BP marked the first anniversary of the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill with a $40 billion lawsuit blaming the disaster on its partners, as Gulf residents held somber vigils and relatives flew over the waters where 11 oil rig workers died.

A year after the rig explosion that triggered the worst offshore oil spill in American history, President Barack Obama vowed to hold BP and others accountable for "the painful losses that they've caused."

For its part, BP filed a lawsuit alleging negligence by the rig owner and by the maker of the device that failed to stop the spill. Both of those companies filed their own claims, a reminder that lengthy court battles lie ahead.

The disaster began on the night of April 20, 2010, when the Deepwater Horizon rig burst into flames and killed the 11 men. The rest of the crew evacuated, but two days later the rig toppled into the Gulf and sank to the sea floor. Over the next 85 days, 206 million gallons (780 million liters) of oil — 19 times more than the Exxon Valdez spilled — spewed from the well.

Parents, siblings and wives of the workers — whose bodies were never recovered — boarded a helicopter Wednesday to see the waters where their loved ones perished. The helicopter took them from New Orleans out to the well site, circled around so that people on both sides of the aircraft could see and then returned to shore, said Arleen Weise, whose son, Adam, was killed on the rig. The only indication they were at the site was an announcement from the pilot, she said.

"It was just a little emotional, seeing where they were," Weise said by phone from Houston, where rig owner Transocean planned an evening memorial service.

Asked what went through her mind when she saw where the rig went down, Weise said, "Just rise up. I wanted them to come up, but it didn't happen."

In a statement, Obama paid tribute to those killed in the blast and said that despite significant progress toward mitigating the spill's worst impacts, "the job isn't done."

"We continue to hold BP and other responsible parties fully accountable for the damage they've done and the painful losses that they've caused," he said.

BP said in its lawsuit filed in federal court in New Orleans that Cameron International provided a blowout preventer with a faulty design, alleging that negligence by the manufacturer helped cause the disaster. The suit seeks damages to help BP pay for the tens of billions of dollars in liabilities it has incurred from the disaster.

BP also sued rig owner Transocean for at least $40 billion in damages, accusing it of causing last year's deadly blowout. BP says every single safety system and device and well control procedure on the Deepwater Horizon rig failed.

Late Wednesday, BP also sued cement contractor Halliburton alleging fraud, negligence and concealing material facts in connection with its work on the rig.

In a statement, Transocean called BP's lawsuit "desperate," "specious," and "unconscionable."

"The Deepwater Horizon was a world-class drilling rig manned by a top-flight crew that was put in jeopardy by BP, the operator of the Macondo well, thorough a series of cost-saving decisions that increased risk — in some cases, severely," Transocean said.

Houston-based Cameron noted in a statement emailed to AP that Wednesday was the deadline under the relevant statute for all parties to file claims against each other. It said that it has filed claims of its own to protect itself.

Also Wednesday, Transocean filed court papers demanding that judgments be made against BP, Cameron and other companies in its favor.

A presidential commission has concluded that a cascade of technical and managerial failures — including a faulty cement job — caused the disaster. BP, the oil giant that owns the blown-out well, has paid billions in cleanup costs and to compensate victims. The company has estimated its total liability at $40.9 billion, but it might have to pay many billions more, especially if its officials were to be found criminally negligent in still pending investigations and trials. For now, though, the company has rebounded relatively well, with its stock now just 20 percent below its pre-spill value.

At a candle-lit ceremony in New Orleans' Jackson Square shortly after sunrise, environmentalists and religious leaders joined to remember the perished rig workers and call on the nation to take the steps to prevent another environmental catastrophe.

"Our souls are slumbering in moral indifference," said Rabbi Edward Cohn of the Temple Sinai in New Orleans. "People quite rightly are asking: How and when, and by whose insistence and stubborn support, will the public's mind be refocused upon what happened in the Gulf?"

Elsewhere around the world, BP employees were observing a minute of silence.

"We are committed to meet our obligations to those affected by this tragedy and we will continue our work to strengthen safety and risk management across BP," BP chief executive Bob Dudley said in a message on the company's website. "But most of all today, we remember 11 fellow workers and we deeply regret the loss of their lives.

In Alabama, members of 10 churches gathered on a public beach in Orange Beach, Alabama, during a daylong prayer vigil Wednesday.

The solemn ceremonies underscore the delicate healing that is only now taking shape. Oil still occasionally rolls up on beaches in the form of tar balls, and fishermen face an uncertain future.

Still, there are some signs that normalcy is returning. Traffic jams on the narrow coastal roads of Alabama, crowded seafood restaurants in Florida and families vacationing along the Louisiana coast attest to the fact that familiar routines are returning, albeit slowly.

Most scientists agree that environmental damage wasn't as bad as some predicted, said Christopher D'Elia, dean at the School of the Coast and Environment at Louisiana State University. But biologists are still concerned about the spill's long-term effect on marine life.

Accumulated oil is believed to lie on the bottom of the Gulf, and it still shows up as a thick, gooey black crust along miles of Louisiana's marshy shoreline. Scientists have begun to notice that the land in many places is eroding, and plants have been damaged.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said more than 300 miles (500 kilometers) of Louisiana coastline continues to see some BP oil. He was joined by the presidents of six coastal parishes for a commemoration on Grand Isle, a coastal barrier island that took major impact from the oil

Jindal urged the company to continue to fund coastal restoration and to speed up claims payments to those affected by the oil. "We continue to call on BP to fulfill the promises of their ads. We continue to call on BP to truly make it right."

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